So much for the “Dream Group” or the “Power Group” or whatever you wanted to call the Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler grouping at the Players Championship.
Lefty and his long-sleeve office/golf shirt are headed home after Mickelson floundered with an opening 79 and wasn’t much better with 73 on Friday. The writing was on Lefty’s wall after that 79.
Same fate for Fowler.
Rickie shot 74-71 and with the world seemingly shooting under par, Rickie’s one-over total was no where good enough and he can head back to his palatial digs in Jupiter on the Loxahatchee River.
That leaves only Tiger.
For the second straight day Woods struggled, fought and clawed his way and this time he was able to get in red numbers, albeit not by much. After an opening 72 he managed just two birdies against one bogey on Friday and was sitting squarely on the 36-hole cut line, hoping it would not move to two-under by day’s end.
I didn’t hit the ball close enough today. I didn’t get off to the start I wanted to. I had sand wedge on 10, reachable par-5 at 11, sand wedge again at 12, and I played those even par. That’s not the start I wanted to have and unfortunately kind of went the same way the rest of the day,” Woods lamented.
The cut waivered between one-under and two-under before late in the afternoon, the minus-ones made it, giving Woods two more rounds to get better.
Mickelson’s appearance was cut short, much to the chagrin of his new sponsor-partner, Mizzen + Main, maker of those not-so-flattering long-sleeve shirts.
Mickelson is said to be an “equity partner” in the company, meaning he has some percentage of ownership.
He needs to because those shirts didn’t help his performance, for sure.
It was an ugly two days for Lefty.
